[From the diaries by susanhu w/ minor edits. Oui lives in The Netherlands.]
Homegrown terror: We need to define the meaning of this term. The model of the Theo van Gogh killing is identical to the radical Islamist threshold of British citizens to place bombs in the London subway.
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The Hofstad group is a clear example of very young Muslims – 15 to 21 years old – that have radicalized in the last 4 years. Although this was a single murder, the reaction of the Dutch community was very ugly. Hate messages, arson of mosques and Muslim schools was a rage of hatred that made the divide in Dutch society even worse.
Mohammed Bouyeri [MB] was close to the Hofstad Group, and had prepared himself for a suicidal attack. He had written his will – last testament – stopped paying his monthly rent and utilities bills. MB was armed and expected to be killed in a police shootout, hoping to die in a glory of bullets. He possibly was unaware that the Dutch police officer is a poor markswoman and lacks training. So MB wasn’t killed after the van Gogh killing, and now faces life sentencing after a 2-day trial in the special high security court building in Amsterdam.
Other causes to radicalize are the Palestinian oppression and Israeli occupation of their homeland, the Chechen war, and the high civilian casualty count in Iraq. If you invade a sovereign nation – you own it and all the consequences. Tony Blair and George Bush are responsible for the invasion and the lack of leadership for their nations and as presumed leaders of the free western world. Internet – Satellite TV – documentaries of the casualties in the Mid-East, Iraq and Chechnya are daily available throughout the western world.
Just today another 17 year old youth was arrested for acts of radical Islam, websites of hatred and publications.
Dutch society for years have not treated its Muslim citizens as equals, relying on extra legislation of anti-discrimination which of course does not guarantee equality in job opportunity. During decades of refusing to face reality, many Dutch cabinets produced a flow of policy notes but missed reality and directness to the individual Muslim citizens. A poor or lacking Immigration policy, as a major source the racial issue worsened to a degree only hard medicine will resort some effect.
The person credited with attacking the Dutch Integration illusion was Pim Fortuyn who made a sweeping entry into Dutch politics. In March 2002 his affiliated party gained a third of the council seats in the city of Rotterdam. Just days before the national election, Pim Fortuyn was executed by an attack of a lone gunman, an animal liberation radical Van de Graaf. The party Fortuyn led gained an unprecedented number of seats in Dutch parliament 28 out of a total of 150 seats. All parties part of the reigning purple coalition lost heavily.
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Related Diaries/Comments @BooMan by Oui
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Must be emptied before peace returns to the individual.
Hatred fueled by Insecurity – Injustice – Lack of Political Leadership – War.
Society must find its balance Economic – Social – Human Rights – Religion – Freedoms – Participation – Community Spirit – Responsibility for the individuals.
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Powerful diary, Oui. Free Speech TV here has been dwelling on the comparisons to The Netherlands.
I need to read up on the Lodi, California case to see what’s going on in this country … things seem calmer in the U.S. in the Muslim community. That could be in part because the moderate Muslims seem to have more power here. Dunno. I wish someone who knows more about Muslims in the U.S. would speak up.
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I appreciate the diary promotion. Will I now miss recommendations??
In the Netherlands it has surprised me how the youths, Dutch born are converted to radical Islam movement. After the 9/11 attacks on NY and DC, there were a few towns in The Netherlands where Muslim youths cheered in public on the streets. The Dutch purple administration at the time, did not take it as a serious omen.
A lot of Saudi financial support involved in building Muslim communities and mosques. It is time for the US makes a choice, and consider Saudi Arabia a terror state!
The United States should choose for energy conservation, instead of the Bush family giving the SA Royal Family and Princes so much freedom in U.S. financial markets and investments. Speaking of terror source – the base lies on the holy soil of the Arabian peninsula.
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From Wes Clark today:
Relentless pressure by the CIA, Special Forces and many other national intelligence and police efforts has made the old, centralized structure of al-Qaeda unworkable.
And we need to keep up the pressure. But al-Qaeda’s new threat is decentralized. Thursday’s attacks in London have all the earmarks of such a “franchise” operation, locally planned and resourced with relatively modest means, emulating al-Qaeda without the vulnerabilities of centralized resourcing and direction.
Preventing attacks probably can’t be accomplished by the administration’s preference for taking out “state sponsors.” And it’s going to be very difficult to employ military means. National intelligence efforts, special police activities and local community policing efforts, which focus on identifying and targeting terrorist individuals and organizations, are required.” …
Entire article.
Someone (here or somewhere) posted a piece about an article by or that mentions someone named Pace… who has tracked all the terrorist events of the past few years, and come to the conclusion that most suidide bombers were not Muslims. They were Tamil Tigers.
I think when it comes to “Muslim Terrorism” we are basically caught up in a really huge case of misdirection. Not that some people are not terrorists, or that some don’t commit various acts in the name of their religions, or that some don’t feel that blowing up a bus is a tactic of war, not of terrorism… but that each of these things is part of one big “Islam wants to take over the world” ideology. Again, not that there are not some who practice that religion that believe that… just like some Christian theocrats do.
Do I have enough qualifiers there? I think so ;).
When middle class white kids started shooting up schools, killing their classmates and thier teachers and so on, people were shocked, and couldn’t understand how they could do that. They didn’t lead hard lives, they weren’t raised in a ghetto or barrio where they had to scrabble to survive, they weren’t raised in a ‘culture of violence’, etc. They were from “good neighborhoods”.
At the time, I couldn’t figure out why people didn’t understand that we are a lot more connected than we think. Anger is anger, and feelings of humiliation, of powerlessness – real or imagined- , of a need to redress grievances, and so on, cross all racial and nationality lines. And even if it’s not a readily apparent or understandable one, these feelings usually have a cause. And sometimes they seek an outlet that impacts us all, in one way or another.
I believe we need to refuse to be misdirected by the religious aspect, which may be part of things but which is not at all the main basis for the various actions, as far as I can see. Someone in Chechnya may be a Muslim, but their issues are far different from those of someone in Leeds, even though they share the same religion, even if of a different sect.
There are individual issues that need to be scrutinized and addressed in Chechnya, the Netherlands, Israel/Palestine, the UK… as well as Sri Lanka, Iraq and Columbine.
Sorry for the ramble, just thinking out loud ;).
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Dutch law enforcement agency and the AIVD – Secret Service Agency – will try to disperse radical Islamist groups being formed. These groups keep international contacts with terror groups in Spain, France, Italy and North Africa.
Many individuals have been arrested and taken to court. A conviction has been extremely difficult due to fact a crime has not yet been committed and most of the evidence is obtained by the Secret Service, not an official investigation by the Dutch Justice officers. Much evidence cannot be made public in court, nor can Dutch secret service agents risk to give public evidence and blow their cover. A stage of preparation or planning a crime is not sufficient for a conviction, therefore Dutch law has been changed to make it unlawful to be part of a criminal organization. The Human Rights groups have attacked aspects of the new legislation, due to infringement of individual rights. See also today’s meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.
So, the Dutch administration has to be satisfied by dispersing the groups, tracking individuals and keep close watch 24 hours per day on all suspected extreme Islamists. A number of Arab nationals, performing duties as Islam scholar in Dutch mosques have been denied residence permission.
There are two mosques with radical Islam culture in The Netherlands: El Tawheed in Amsterdam and Al-Furqaan Mosque in Eindhoven.
A tough fight to win against extremism and potential terror attacks.
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Cross-posted @ European Tribune
Mohammed Bouyeri
Videos showing beheadings and stonings found in home – US asked to help investigate 87 email addresses in killer’s possession. Sixty separate documents were found on the computer of Mohammed Bouyeri [MB], a total of 500Gb. He himself searched the Internet for fundamental Islamic teachings. Apparently not fluent in the Arabic language, MB mainly searched the sites of the English in order to translate the teachings into the Dutch language. MB used to be employed as a social worker in a community organization as was seen as a pleasant and dedicated person.
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~ ~ Extended diary @ European Tribune ~
Saudi funds and fundamental influence has been flowing into Eindhoven’s Al-Furqaan Mosque. I understand a leading Imam has his residence permit revoked and ordered to leave the country.
It’s also from Eindhoven two youths were killed near the Kashmir border, perhaps on their way to receive a terrorist training. The Netherlands has three major Technical Universities – Twente, Eindhoven and Delft. There are IMO no links in any of the cities with the technical universities, to any suspected terror group.
Since the ’80s, the Al-Waqf sermons have drilled extremist messages into the heads of thousands of Muslim youth from across Europe. The sermons are believed to have inspired the six Al-Qaeda operatives to plot the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
As I mentioned before, the boys are very young when they radicalize, two brothers from the Hofstad group arrested after the The Hague siege had an American father who was separated from his Morrocan wife.
PS The retaliation was in a small town Uden in the province of Brabant, no connection to Eindhoven mosque. Uden is the center of the SP – Socialist Party and positioned themselves against the EU Charter vote recently.
Women and children wait outside a Muslim school –
Uden Mayor Joke Kersten suspected arson.
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